'India's manufacturing will take 10-15 years to catch up with China.'
'People should realise that what we are fighting for today is actually for tomorrow, for future generations.'
'She will forever be remembered for being a disrupter - a disrupter in a positive sense - as she disrupted the hierarchies that existed in society!'
'After the 4th of May we can expect thunderstorms, dust storms and some rain over a large area of north India.'
'Why do they talk about Narendra Modi insulting Oommen Chandy when he himself informed the PMO that he would not be available? Why did he write to Delhi that he was preoccupied on the 15th? After that, he should not make such noise about the function.'
'The prospects for both India and the global economy is that we are headed towards a very difficult time.' 'I see very uncertain at least 8-10 months for both India and the rest of the world.'
'In a secular society where women are treated equally by law, I want the same equal status for my daughters in society, on par with all the boys.'
'We hope to make parents aware that it takes only a few minutes in a day to be with your children so that they feel they are the most important person at that time.'
'This kind of poisonous and anti-national activities happening in the country and the economic failure of the Modi government may boomerang in the form of a Congress revival.'
Gopalan Balachandran recalls his eldest sister Dr Sushila Gopalan and her daughter Kamala who is now the US vice-president-elect.
'How many more months and years will we have to wait for truth to win?' 'Will anyone give us back the months and years we have lost waiting for that 'one day'?'
'How can we tolerate such high-handedness?'
'The regime -- and particularly the home ministry under Amit Shah -- have sought to suppress and destroy these struggles through intimidation, bullying, threats, through false cases, arrests, custodial torture, the use of draconian laws like the UAPA.'
'Whether it will create an impact or not, only time will tell.'
'What she did so far and what she will do now is secondary; the most important thing is a person from the Adivasi community has reached the top-most position in the country.'
'If they add a small paragraph that no purchase will be allowed below the MSP, they have a winner on their hands'
'Every Congressperson is disillusioned in different degrees.'
'The Hindu electorate is more or less in the BJP defined space now.'
'Women use acting as a way to protect themselves.'
'All Shatabdis and Rajdhanis should be converted to this type of high-speed train.' 'There should be a sleeper version of the train.' 'Right now, there is only a day version of the train.' 'Unless you develop a sleeper version, it will not be possible to replace the Rajdhani.' 'Work on the sleeper version was stopped for some reason. It should be revived now.'
The biggest achievement of the Modi government in the past one year was it could bring positivity in the minds of people and industry, says V P Nandakumar, executive chairman of the Manappuram Finance Ltd, in an interview to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com.
'An ambassador may not be sure whether there would be a war next month, but prudence requires him to take action to see to it that people leave early.' 'Because once the war starts, it will be very difficult to move out.'
'The Sangh Parivar's position is that whatever gold that is there in a temple should remain there. It shouldn't be taken away by anyone.' 'See, we are not misappropriating anything; we are only using it for the welfare of the temple and the devotees.'
'What the government should do is to use the vaccine judiciously, not just to prevent a third wave alone, but to stop the number of deaths happening in the interim.'
'We found that in fatty liver patients, something happens that blocks insulin secretion.'
'Some people even boldly ask for a 100% increase in the salary.'
'Segregation suits the BJP at the moment. It will not suit them forever.'
Meet Sabriye Tenberken, a German woman who is changing lives in India.
'Each cyclone has its own identity and its own behaviour based on the environmental conditions in the ocean and in the atmosphere.'
'Since we have to stop the pandemic, we have to use the vaccines now and that is why the emergency-use approval is justifiable.'
'I didn't want the biopic on Swami Chinmayananda to be a propaganda film,' filmmaker R S Prasanna tells Shobha Warrier/ Rediff.com
'Both the Centre and the states cannot say that they have been taking good care of public health.'
'Unemployment barely figures in the Budget except as a derived demand from the industry and infrastructure.' 'There is no effort at direct attack on unemployment.'
'Are they assuming that by the end of May or the 15th of June, we will see the end of the pandemic?'
'We still have 30,000-40,000 cases.' 'It is plateauing, but the number should definitely come down more so that we can convert the pandemic into an endemic.'
'I hope the Centre and the states will both act in the spirit of cooperative federalism and find acceptable solutions without testing the law and the limits of each other's power.' 'This should not be considered a wrestling match.'
'Is it not deplorable that even after 75 years of independence, there are people in our society who have been denied freedom?'
'We need to prove to the world that quality vaccines and R&D are possible in India.'
'Unless Modi uses his power to make people work, he will not succeed. He may cry hoarse but he will not succeed.' V Kalyanam, Mahatma Gandhi's personal secretary, tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com why Modi's Clean India campaign won't succeed easily.
Bindu Sampath from Thiruvananthapuram is the voice of all those mothers who have lost their children to ISIS. Her habeas corpus petition for her daughter Nimisha, who got married and converted to Islam, was turned down. Now the NIA has found daughter and family to be with ISIS in Afghanistan, but Bindu has not given up hope to bring her back to India.
